The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-06-24

Germany was glad to have our Minister,
George Bancroft, sit down with him at
his table; but tell me, We who know most
of the worlds history, what other King
ever asked the abandoned, and the for
lorn, and the wretehed, and the outcast,
to come and sit down beside him! Oh,
wonderful invitation2 You can take it to =
day, and stand at the head of the darkes I
alley in this city, and say:
Comei Clothes for your rags, salve for your
sores, throne for your eternal reigning.
A Christ that talks like that and acts
like that and pardons like that-do you
wonder that Stephen stood looking at
himg hope TO spend eternity doing the
same thing. I must see him. I must
look upon that face once clouded with my
sin, but now radiant with my pardon.
l want to touch that hand that
knocked off my shackles. / want to hear
that voice which pronounced my deliver
| ance. Behold him, little children, for if
you live to three score years and ten you
will see none so fair Behold him, ye
aged ones, for he only can shine through
the dimness of our failing eyesight. Be
hold him, earth Behold him, Heaven.
What moment when ali the nations of
the saved shall gather around Christi
All faces that way. All thrones that
way, gazing on Jesus.
His worth if all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him, too.
1 pass on now, ana look at Stephen
stoned. The world has always wanted to
get rid of good men. Their very life is
an assault upon wickedness. Out with
Stephen through the gates of the city.
Down with him over the precipices. Let
every man come and drop a stone upon
his head. But these men did not 50 much
kill Stephen as they killed themselves.
Every stone rebounded upon them.
While these murderers were trans
fixed by the scorn of all good
men, Stephen lives in the admira-
tion of all Christendom. Stephen
| stoned but Stephen alive So all good
men must be pelted. All who will live
| godly in Christ Jesus must suffer perse-
cution. 1t is no eulogy of a man to say
that every body likes him. Show me one
who is doing all his duty to State or
Church, and I will show you scores of m len
who utterly abhor him.
If all men speak well of you it is be-
| cause you are either a laggard or dolt.
If a steamer makes a rapid progress
| through the waves the water will boil and
foam all around it. Brave soldiers of
Jesus Christ will hear the carbine's click.
/ When l see man with voice, and money,
and influence all on the right side, and
some caricature him, and some sneer at
| him, and some deuounce him, and men
who pretend to be actuated by right mo-
tives conspire to cripple him, to cast him
| out, to destroy him, 1 say: ''Stephen
| stoned"
When l see a man in some great moral
| or religious form battling against grog-
shops, exposing wickedness in high
| places, by active means trying to purify
| the church and better the worlds estate,
and 1 find that the news papers anathem mat
ize him, and men, even good men, oppose
/ him and denounce him, because, though he
! does good, he does not do 1t in their way,
say: stephen stoned
| The world, with finite spite, took after
| John Frederick Oberlin, and Robert Mof-
fat, and Paul and Stephen of the text.
But you notice, my friends. that while
they assaulted him they did not succeed
really in killing him. You may assault a
! good man. but you can not kill him. On
/ the day of his death Stephen spoke be-
| fore few people in the Sanhedrim; this
| Sabbath morning he ad lresses all Chris.
! tendon. Paul the apostle stood on Mars
| Hill addressing handful of philos ophers,
/ who knew not so much about science
as a modern schoolgirl. To-day he talks
to all the millions of Chrstendom about
the wonders of justification and the
| glories of resurrection. John Wesley
| was howled down by the mob to whom he
| preached, and they threw bricks at him,
and they denounced him, and they jostlel
him, and ~ spat upon him, and yet to-
| day, in all lands, he IS admitted to be the
| great father of Methodism Booths bull
let vacated the Presidential chair, but
from that spot of coagulated blood on the
floor in the box of Ford's Theater there
sprang up the new life of a nation.
Stephen stoned, but Stephen alive.
Pass now and see Stephen in his
| dying prayer. His first thought was not
how the stones hurt his head, nor what
became of his body His first thought
was about his spirit
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
The murderer standing on the trap
| door, the black cap being drawn over his
| head before the execution, may grimace
about the future; but you and 1 have no
shame in confessing some anxiety about
where we are going to come out You are
not all body. There is within you soul.
see it CLEAN from your eyes today and
see 1t irridlating your countenance.
Sometimes 1 am abashed befo-e an audi
ence, not because 1 am under your phys
ical eyesight, but because / realize the
truth that / tand before so many immor-
tai spirits The probability is that your
| body will at last find a sepulture in
some of the cemeteries that surround
| this city. There no doubt but that
your obsequies will be decent and
respectful, and you will be able to
pillow your head under the maple. or the
Norway spruce. or the cypress. or the
blossoming fire but this spirit about
which Stephen prayed, what direction
will that take! What guide will escort it4
What gate will open TO receive it7 What
cloud will be cleft for its pathways After
it has got beyond the light of our sun,
Will there be torches lighted for 10 the
rest OF the wayl Will the soul have to
travel through long deserts before it
| reaches the good landl If we should lose
our pathway will there be a castle at
whose gate we may ask the way to the
cityl O this mysterious spirit within US /
1t has two wings, but it is in a cage now.
1t is locked fast to keep IL, but let the
door of this case open the least and that
soul is off. Eagles wing could not catch
IL. The lightnings are not swift enough
to take up with it. When the soul leaves
the body it takes fifty worlds at a
bound. And have no anxiety
about it? Have you no anxiety about III
l do not care what you do with my body
when my soul is gone, or whether you be-
lieve in cremation or inhumatIon. shall
sleep just as well in a wrapping of sack
cloth as in satin lined with eagles down.
But my soul-before leave this house
this morning / will find out where IL is
going 70 land. Thank God for the intima-
ton of my text that when we die Jesus
takes us. That answers all questions for
me. What though there were massive
bars between here and the scity Of light
Jesus could remove them. What though
there were great Saharas OF darkness,
Jesus could illume them. What though /
get weary on the way, Christ could lift
me on his omnipotent shoulder. What
though there were chasms to cross, his
hand could transport me. Then let Steph-
EMS prayer be my dying litany;
Lord Jesus receive my spirit.
It may be in that hour VIC will bs too
feeble To sav a long PRAYER IL may he in
that hour we will not be able 10 say the
Lords Prayer" for il has seven petit
tions. Perhaps we may be too feeble even
to say the infant prayer our mothers
taught us. which John Quincy Adams,
seventy years OF age, said every q light